Design an Object Store with Deduplication
Company: Snowflake Title: Design an object store with deduplication Role: Software Engineer Category: System Design Difficulty: MEDIUM Stage: Technical Screen
Problem Description
Design a simplified cloud object storage service, similar to existing object stores, that enables users to upload and download files. The primary objective is to significantly reduce storage costs by implementing a robust deduplication mechanism, ensuring that identical file content is stored only once, regardless of how many times or by how many users it is uploaded.
Core Requirements
- Upload: Allow users to upload binary blobs and ensure their durable storage.
- Download: Enable retrieval of previously uploaded files using a unique identifier.
- Metadata: Support essential file metadata, including filename, content-type, size, upload time, and owner.
- Deduplication: Implement a strategy to detect and avoid storing duplicate file content. If multiple users upload the exact same content, it must be stored only once.
Non-Goals (for Simplification)
- Complex lifecycle rules, data tiering, or Content Delivery Network (CDN) integration are not required.
- Permissions can be simplified; assume authenticated users with basic Access Control List (ACL) capabilities.
Scale & Assumptions
- The system must handle a large number of objects, with individual objects potentially reaching multiple gigabytes in size.
- High read and write throughput is expected.
- The system must be resilient to failures.
What to Cover
- API design for upload and download operations.
- High-level architectural overview.
- Data model and storage layout.
- Detailed deduplication approach, including how duplicates are detected and how shared content is referenced.
- Consistency and correctness concerns, specifically addressing race conditions and partial uploads.
- Deletion and garbage collection strategies for shared content.
- Operational considerations, such as monitoring and cost trade-offs.
AI interview prep
Core dilemma
Balancing the primary goal of cost reduction through robust deduplication with the complexities of ensuring data integrity, strong consistency for shared content metadata (especially during concurrent writes and deletes), and high availability under extreme scale and failure conditions.
3 tradeoffs and 3 stress tests locked
Interview prep
Unlock the interviewer X-Ray rubric, tradeoff matrix, stress tests, clarifying questions, and key concepts.
Design an Object Store with Deduplication
Company: Snowflake Title: Design an object store with deduplication Role: Software Engineer Category: System Design Difficulty: MEDIUM Stage: Technical Screen
Problem Description
Design a simplified cloud object storage service, similar to existing object stores, that enables users to upload and download files. The primary objective is to significantly reduce storage costs by implementing a robust deduplication mechanism, ensuring that identical file content is stored only once, regardless of how many times or by how many users it is uploaded.
Core Requirements
- Upload: Allow users to upload binary blobs and ensure their durable storage.
- Download: Enable retrieval of previously uploaded files using a unique identifier.
- Metadata: Support essential file metadata, including filename, content-type, size, upload time, and owner.
- Deduplication: Implement a strategy to detect and avoid storing duplicate file content. If multiple users upload the exact same content, it must be stored only once.
Non-Goals (for Simplification)
- Complex lifecycle rules, data tiering, or Content Delivery Network (CDN) integration are not required.
- Permissions can be simplified; assume authenticated users with basic Access Control List (ACL) capabilities.
Scale & Assumptions
- The system must handle a large number of objects, with individual objects potentially reaching multiple gigabytes in size.
- High read and write throughput is expected.
- The system must be resilient to failures.
What to Cover
- API design for upload and download operations.
- High-level architectural overview.
- Data model and storage layout.
- Detailed deduplication approach, including how duplicates are detected and how shared content is referenced.
- Consistency and correctness concerns, specifically addressing race conditions and partial uploads.
- Deletion and garbage collection strategies for shared content.
- Operational considerations, such as monitoring and cost trade-offs.